The present invention is directed to a sheet film magazine for a film changer, which film magazine comprises a housing and a cover that forms a space for storing a stack of unseparated sheets of film that lie on a film plane, and has a conveyor means for conveying individual sheets of film from the film stack through a film discharge opening of the sheet film magazine into a receptacle part of the film changer.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,541,625, whose disclosure is incorporated herein by reference thereto, discloses a sheet film magazine having a conveyor means. The conveyor means for the sheets of film comprises a plate that can be lowered down onto the uppermost sheet of film of a stack of films based on an arrangement of gear wheels and springs. Subsequently, the plate displaces the uppermost sheet of film toward a back of the container in a direction opposite to the exit direction so that the back end of the sheet of film is lifted with rails and is introduced into a slot. After this displacement of the sheet of film, the plate lifts off from the surface of the uppermost sheet of film. While in this position, the front end of the stack of sheets of films are pressed downward away from the film exit opening, while the uppermost sheet of film will now lie in a plane which extends toward the exit opening. A shaft having a hook attached thereto is in the position of the slot and grabs the back or trailing edge of the sheet of film and, thus, thrusts the sheet of film through the film exit opening into a receptable part. This sheet film magazine is extremely complicated in structure and is, therefore, expensive to manufacture.
German Published Application 27 47 623 discloses a sheet film magazine that is not provided for a film changer. The conveyor means of this sheet film magazine comprises a pressure plate that presses against the uppermost sheet of film of the film stack. The pressure against the uppermost sheet of film also influences the lower sheet of film that is, thereby, pressed against a conveyor roller that will convey the lowermost sheet of film out of the magazine. Since a plurality of sheets of film in the film stack can stick to one another due to static electricity, this device cannot guarantee that two sheets of film are not simultaneously conveyed out of the magazine.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,234,796, whose disclosure is incorporated herein by reference thereto, discloses a film changer having an integrated, bent sheet film magazine. A conveyor roller presses against the film stack and conveys the uppermost sheet of film of the film stack to further conveying rollers that will convey the sheet of film into a receptacle unit. As a result of the described structure of the conveyor means, it is not guaranteed that only one sheet of film is conveyed out of the magazine at one time.